Death Eater and the Light

Chapter two

(The Accident)

"Even in my darkest hour, your essence still haunts me."

Dear Dairy,

Well Diary, this is my last entry until I can find time to write. You see I'm going to a new school tomorrow; I'm kinda happy about it. Nisa and I are transferring to Hogwarts. Grandma has assured us that it's the same school our parents went to.

Nisa and I have to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow morning to get our books and stuff, but anyway.... Diary guess who is at Hogwarts? Blaise. Remember when I went with my school to the Tri-Wizard Tournament last year? Well while I was there I stayed with the Slytherins and I met everyone but Draco... he was a little under the weather. But I hear he is really nice and Blaise says that he's a really cool person to be around and that we are a lot alike. Anyway I think I'm going to go to bed now, I have a long day ahead of me. I can't wait to see Blaise again; I hope he doesn't have a girlfriend. Tomorrow, I'll write in you for the first time at Hogwarts.

Love,

Adel

The woman in the picture smiled; her light brown hair floated on the breeze. Inside of the moving picture, she looked so peaceful. The baby in her arms had white blonde hair and big gray eyes. The baby had latched onto the woman's robes and was pulling very hard while the picture woman laughed. She turned once again, waving at him and blowing a kiss before focusing on the tiny child. As the man watched, he drew his fingers over the contours of her face stopping when she looked up at him and smiled.

"You often look at that picture around this time Severus? You miss her a lot don't you?"

"Professor Dumbledore, I didn't hear you come in. I'm sorry, I must be off in another land."

"It's fine Severus. I must say, I'm happy to see that you still have that picture. It is rare to see a picture of Merrick but even rarer to see one of her smiling and holding Draco in her arms. Has he seen this picture?"

Albus Dumbledore sat down in a chair near the door of Severus Snape's chambers in the dungeons. His eyes twinkled as they regarded the teacher and spy for the Light, Severus Snape. It had been so long since they could comfortably talk of Merrick without Severus getting up and walking away,that was why he included Draco in the conversation. Severus had a soft spot for his Godson, not only because he was his Godson, but because when he was around Draco he felt closer to Merrick. At least, that was what he had told Albus one night while drunk.

"No. I have never shown him any pictures of Merrick, but I'm sure he knows of her. Excuse me; I must prepare my schedule for class." Severus turned the picture to the wall before standing, showing that the conversation about Merrick had ended. He turned to Albus as if to dismiss him, only refraining because Albus was the Headmaster. Albus knew the professor though, so he stood to excuse himself.

"Oh, Severus, Trelawney begged me to ask if you would do the Open Eye. She has a project for her students and would like to do that. Will you indulge her? Do you have the ingredients to do so?" Albus smiled at the other man, having noticed the barely contained rage at having to change his schedule.

"Of course Albus, tell Trelawney that I will do the potion today in class. Will she require a weaker one or a full potion?" Severus said as he walked towards his closet and began looking for the appropriate ingredients.

"She wants to have a full version, but only enough that it will last for three hours at the most."

"The students will have to make a full batch; they can't make three hours worth. Well, I'll just have to have extra then. Thank you for telling me Albus."

"You are very much welcome. Will you be down for breakfast?"

"No, I have to get the ingredients together and then proof the classroom against explosions."

"Very well Severus. I'll tell Trelawney your decision. Please make sure you eat something before class." Albus tilted his moon shaped glasses at Severus he turned and left, his robes as calm as a gentle breeze.

As soon as Albus left his office, Severus looked in the direction of the picture. He could barely make out her hair and smiling face from where he stood. Her essence seemed to call to him, begging him to stare at her some more, to tell of his life and his problems. Tell her everything; how his spy work was coming along, how, with the rise of Voldemort, his services to both sides were becoming such a strain on him. But no matter what he ever told that lovely picture, Merrick was dead. She could not wrap her arms around him and hold him; she could not take him away where there was no war, no spy work for either side. A place where there was no killing and there was no talk of power, just him and her, living in peace. Sighing he turned towards the door, turning off the light with a flick of his wrist as he turned once more to that picture.

"Even in my darkest hour, your essence still haunts me."

Meanwhile, the students of Hogwarts had awoken and were slowly making their way down to the Great Hall to get food and their timesheets for the year. The morning was unbelievably hot, making a lot of irritable people even more sulky and snappy. The Heads of Houses, except for Slytherin, were passing out their House's timesheets and reprimanding students with their uniforms improperly worn.

At the Gryffindor table, Harry Potter sat eating a peaceful meal. His best friends sat beside him but were more into their boyfriends to notice him. Hermione had begun dating Dean Thomas. She had told Harry on the train that she had been dating Dean off and on since the middle of fourth year. This of course was a surprise to him since he thought she was all into that Victor Krum guy. Turns out she and Victor were just friends as she had claimed, and that was because she had been dating Dean. He was actually happy for them; Dean was very nice and seemed to like her a lot. He was always indulging her fancy and trying to do anything to keep her happy.

Harry snickered to himself, "Wonder how long she will put up with the nice boy routine before she does something odd?"

On his other side, was Ron Weasley, the only person besides Hermione that he would give his life for. Now when Harry saw Ron on the train with their roommates he had thought nothing of it, but what he didn't notice was that Ron and Neville were holding hands. He had been so out of it that they had to pull him aside before going to bed.

"Harry I know you may think this is odd, but we really like each other, and we've been trying to keep our relationship a secret for a bit. I know I was wrong, and I should have told you," Ron had said.

"Yeah Harry," Neville continued, "I don't want you to hate us. Once word gets around school that Ron and I are together we'll need all the support we can get, and having you back us up will do wonders for the people that don't like gays. Please Harry? Say you'll back us up. Say you are ok with this."

To say he was shocked would be an understatement. He had never even thought that either boy liked boys, or that either boy had the hots for each other. Now, he wasn't against gay relationships, he himself had been batting for both teams, though he had not yet picked a side, he just thought it strange that both Ron and Neville had labeled him against gay people before they even talked to him. Across from him sat Ginny, who was making faces at some kid at the Ravenclaw table. She too had found a boy to crush on other than Harry, which he was ok with because he just couldn't see himself doing anything with her. She was, for the most part, his younger sister and messing around with her would just be wrong.

He sighed and looked around the Hall as he raised his glass to his mouth. He could feel a pair of eyes on him as his own brilliant green eyes looked around, green eyes searching for the offending person until they locked with a pair of gray eyes right across the Hall from him. A smirk along with a light nod graced his vision before the gray eyes turned from him to talk to another. Now, he had seen some strange things, but to see a Malfoy, and Draco Malfoy at that, nod at you... well... that was just unbelievable.

"Well someone must have had an Imperius curse placed on him in the night for him to nod at me," he thought.

Harry shook his head and got up from the table, telling Hermione and Ron that he would meet them at Potions, which was the first class for the day. They both nodded to him before turning back to their lovers. He walked out into the hot corridor. There was no breeze, but he could see as long as the hall goes that each window was open. Walking at a fast pace, he almost bumped into someone as he turned the corner. It was Cho Chang, a sixth year Ravenclaw girl that he had a crush on the previous year.

"Oh! Harry! I'm sorry I wasn't looking. I'm glad that I ran into you though, I want to talk to you in private about something in my dreams last night." Cho stated in a rushed breath.

"Sure Cho. Was it about Cedric?"

"Yeah. It wasn't all that bad but I still put it in that pensieve you sent me over vacation. I really appreciate that. So can you come up to my room tonight, sometime after dinner?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Great! Oh and Harry? You think maybe you could stay tonight? I really don't want to be alone, and I thought that maybe if you were there I could sleep better. I mean, you don't have to stay the night if you don't want to, just long enough for me to get to sleep."

"Sure Cho, anything. I'll see you later."

Cho wrapped her arms around Harry's waist and pulled him into a hug. Her long hair lay in between her chest and his. She looked up at Harry, then placed a chaste kiss on his lips before smiling and walking away. Harry only stared after her, before walking towards the dungeons. He had hoped that something would come of his crush with Cho. They had talked often on the phone and by owl over the summer. The Dursleys had allowed him to send and get owls as long as it was at night when none of their neighbors could see. They had gotten pretty close, but as he talked to her more, he found out that she wasn't what he had thought her to be. She had weird mood swings and would often get mad about silly things, so to have her ask him to stay with her was just a little out of character.

Sighing again he thought about going to see Lupin before class, Lupin had come to the school to visit Harry while doing work for the Light. He lived only a short ways from the dungeons, and Harry really wanted to talk to him, so he changed course. Upon arriving, he found that Professor Lupin was busy with a letter, so he gave him a quick hug before running off to class.

Draco had been having a pretty good day. When he woke he had forgotten the details of the dreams he had been having all weekend, but still had enough information in his mind to write a letter to his father. Speaking of his father, he had forgotten to write his parents a letter last night.

'Damn. They are going to be worried that I didn't send them an owl telling them that I made it ok.'

Breakfast had been okay, but became even better when he noticed Potter looking around the Hall. He had stared at him, knowing Harry would eventually settle on his eyes, and when they did he smirked and nodded to him. The look of utter confusion and shock on Harry's face was enough to call it a day and go to bed. But for an instant, before he looked away Draco felt a sense of foreboding in the back of his mind coupled with a strong feeling of familiarity, as if he had known Harry his whole life. But that can't be right, he had known Harry for only 5 years. Sighing, he placed that feeling in the back of his mind as he got up from the table and made his way to Potions.

During the walk, Blaise talked excitedly of some letter he had got. Turning his head to him, he tried to extract the right information from his babbling friend. Whenever Blaise got happy he talked really fast, most of Slytherin couldn't understand and for the most part tried to keep him calm when talking to him. Only Draco and Pansy could decipher what he was saying.

"Ok Blaise, you got a letter from that girl that came to visit last year, and you wanted me to read it?"

"No Draco! She's coming to our school; she and her sister are transferring. Isn't that great? She is really pretty Draco; you'll like her a lot. She has the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. Actually, they kind of remind me of Potter's eyes."

"Wait a minute," said Draco, "why are you thinking of Potter's eyes? And let me look at that letter."

Draco pulled the wrinkled and wet letter from Blaise's sweaty hand. Draco's face took on a disgusted look as Blaise wiped his hand on his robe and apologized. Draco smiled at Blaise before turning his eyes on the neat handwriting of the girl that had Blaise jumping off of the walls.

Blaise,

Thought I'd remind you about our talk last year. Remember around June, right before the Third task, when we were sitting out on the lawn and looking up at the stars? Well, I told my Grandma I liked Hogwarts when I got back home, and she said that if I like it then I can go there. So Grandma made the arrangements and...I'm coming to Hogwarts for my last two years! Isn't that great. My sister and I will be coming tomorrow around dinner; I hope I get into Slytherin because I miss you and all the gang so much. Anyway I have to get going, I'm still not packed yet and I have to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow morning to get books and supplies. I'll see you tomorrow!

Love,

Adel

P.S. - Remember Ananisa and I are twins? Well, so you don't get us confused I have hazel-green eyes and she has gray. Funny didn't you say Draco had gray eyes? Hee hee.

Draco smiled down at the letter. It seems that Blaise had forgotten to tell him that he had a crush and that the crush was so obviously returned. Smirking, he handed the letter back to the nervous boy beside him. Blaise always looked for Draco's approval of any girl he liked. Draco only turned on his heel and without a word walked away. This meant that he approved and saw no harm in the relationship; Blaise followed behind him as they walked over to the Potion's class.

As soon as they got into the class, they saw everyone moving fast to get their supplies from the shelves. Professor Snape stood at the front of the board, glaring at everyone that passed him. He seemed in a bad mood, but upon seeing Draco and Blaise his glare dropped for a moment, long enough to greet them, before it returned. Draco and Blaise made their way to the front of the class, grabbing their stuff before sitting down and waiting for Snape to tell them what the Potion for today would be.

"Now that you worthless maggots have finally gotten your supplies, I want you all to listen closely to me," Snape said slowly and harshly, "The potion you will be making today is NOT in your books, so PUT THEM AWAY! Secondly, this potion is for a Divination project you will be doing this week, so if you botch this potion you will not only be hurting your grade here, but in Divination as well. For those that don't have Divination, I expect you to come up to me with your finished potion and sign up for an hour to check it. For the rest, you will test your potion out during class, so make sure you get it right, I don't want to have to stop class to fix your mistakes. Longbottom! That means you!" Snape began floating pieces of paper to everyone before clearing his throat again and speaking, "Now, on the top of your paper, you will find your partner's name. Now move!"

Harry looked at the top of his paper and groaned. Of all the people he could've gotten, why did it have to be Malfoy? He watched as the boy gathered his stuff and walked over to him. Ron shot him a look of pity before Goyle sat down beside him. Hermione was with Millicent, and Neville had Pansy, who didn't look at all pleased to be there with him. Crabbe and Dean sat in front of him and Draco, Dean throwing looks of horror towards his girlfriend, apparently Crabbe was just as bad at potions as Neville was. Harry was brought back to his senses by the slow drawl of Malfoy's voice.

"Potter, it is a pleasure working with you as always." Draco smirked as the confused look appeared on Harry's face again.

"Well, I'm happy working with you too, Malfoy. I mean... whatever. Hand me the wormwood."

Harry and Draco worked in silence, their minds on how complex the potion was. Harry was so engrossed with the work, that he didn't notice he had cut his hand until the small blade was deep in his index finger. Swearing, he applied pressure to it and finished working, not noticing the droplets of blood that had gotten into his potion or the hairs that had fallen from his robes. But fate made sure to keep that knowledge away from Harry, right as Harry was about to look into his cauldron he heard a loud bang across the room.

Neville had exploded his cauldron and it was now shooting out green and orange sparks. Pansy had begun to panic and had fallen backwards, knocking Hermione's and Millicent's cauldron over, which began to smoke. Students began running as smoke filled the room. Snape had gone to get containers for the potion but had not returned. The smoke started to get to Draco so he got up just as Crabbe was running by, they collided and two out of the three stones that Crabbe had been holding flew into Harry's potion, which flickered from a deep blue suddenly to a clear, and back to the blue. Harry was able to whirl around in enough time to get out of the way of Draco's falling cauldron which splattered all over the place.

Snape chose that instant to walk into the room. Upon seeing the smoke, he immediately began cleaning up everything. It was a mess, and far too much potion was on the ground. Feeling anger flood his veins, he counted to ten before yelling for all the students to get up and dump their potions in the back. All of the people with the potion left got up, including Harry. As he was walking, he happened to look into his cauldron, and he noticed that the potion was clear.

'Wonder why it is clear when it is supposed to be blue.'

Fate had a plan though, and at that moment Harry stepped on the last stone that had been in Crabbe's hand. It was called a chaos stone, used to give luck to its owner. Harry fell backwards, the cauldron flying into the air and landing all over his head, his torso and both his arms and hands. The potion was cool upon impact but slowly started to heat up. Harry opened his eyes and saw that Draco Malfoy was at his side.

Draco had been behind him when he fell. Draco offered his hand and Harry took it. A searing heat rushed through the boys' veins. A blinding light surrounded them and threw the boys in opposite directions. People screamed and jumped out of the way, afraid to touch them for fear that they too would be thrown. Snape watched the white light that surrounded them, and quickly called for Dumbledore. When he got back, the students were standing in a circle around the two boys. Draco was out cold, having hit his head on the wall, but Harry... Harry was screaming. His body curled in a tight ball on the floor. Snape ran over to Harry. As he reached him he saw the faint glow of red around him before it disappeared. Turning, he looked at Draco and saw the same red glow fade away.

"What on earth? Could either boy have come in contact with the messed up potion?" he thought before he roared, "CLASS DISMISSED!"

The students fled from the room, stepping around the two boys. Snape watched in silence, awaiting the arrival of the Headmaster and the Madame Pomfrey. Having seen the glow, he wasn't sure if he should touch them or not. He could not risk winding up like the boys; Albus would need his help to find out what it was that had caused the explosion. He slowly made his way over to Draco, whose his forehead was cut and bleeding profusely. He wasn't sure if he should heal him or not so he just sat and watched over him.

"Lucius is going to kill me. How did I manage to hurt Draco in the first week?" Snape glanced at the other boy; his eyes were glazed over, showing only empty pools of green. He was shaking badly and murmuring in a different language. It looked as though his arm was severely burnt, and Snape noticed that Draco's arm was charred as well. That must have been the after effect of the light that he saw, but what was Potter saying? At that moment, Albus and Poppy walked into the room and saw the boys on the ground. With a flick of her wand Poppy had both boys on stretchers and was taking them out of the room. Snape chose this time to speak to the Headmaster, "I don't know what happened. Longbottom's cauldron exploded and it was chaos in here; when I got back I began cleaning. I told everyone that still had potion left to dump it out. I think Potter was going to do that when his potion fell all over him. Malfoy went to help him up, and then there was a blinding light and they were thrown to opposites sides of the room. Albus, Potter's potion is gone so I can't test it to see what potion was made."

"Calm yourself Severus," Albus replied, "Poppy will find out what has happened. Why don't you clean up in here and rest a bit before your other classes?" Albus placed his hand on Snape's shoulder. His eyes twinkled but still showed sympathy for the other man. "Severus, he'll be fine. Poppy will do whatever she can to heal him and find out what happened. In the mean time, would you like me to send a letter to his parents, or would you like to?"

"I think it would be best if I sent it, Albus. Lucius would rather hear of this from someone he knows well."

"Very well. Rest up, and I will be in touch." Albus left the room silently, but the room didn't stay that way for long. Silent sobs could be heard in the hot dungeons if you had listened. Silent sobs of a broken man, who had almost lost the only thing that held him together.